The Internet of Things (IoT) holds a great promise for the future of the global communications industry. The connectivity of humans and machines (e.g., smart phones, tablet computers, home appliances, etc.) via high-speed mobile internet technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and its evolution, forms the basis for a successful global IoT implementation. As the number of connected devices that are capable of establishing connectivity with other devices and/or passive objects to exchange data continues to rise steadily, the IoT technology gains widespread proliferation in the information technology industry. IoT enables creation of an information-rich eco-system that can enrich modern connected way of life and transform the way in which businesses as well as consumers function today.
With the advent of several new competing wireless technologies, global operators as well as third party application/service providers are driving to enhance the mobile IoT devices connectivity model utilizing complementary radio access schemes and efficiently transporting the resulting digitized data via a suitable core transport networking gear. The number of such autonomous connected “things” is expected to grow to 20+ billion by 2020, per Global Industry Analyst's reports.
The ability to connect mobile IoT devices across various industry verticals with traditional smartphones, humans, and other key passive objects over Internet, as well as collect and analyze the raw data produced by an eco-system of such IoT devices, and transform the resulting raw data into usable information makes IoT the next major technology disruptor in creating a truly globally connected world. Such an ability to connect massive number of IoT devices creates new challenges for the networking infrastructure providers to develop innovative and intelligent networking solutions that can deliver optimal connectivity as well as end user service quality.